Maggie Smith Departing ‘Downton Abbey’? Studio Says ‘Not True’

It looks like Lady Violet, the Dowager Countess of “Downton Abbey,” will not yet have the time to discover what a weekend is: Maggie Smith, the actress who portrays that character on “Downton Abbey,” the hit British costume drama, is not planning to leave that series, a press representative for the studio that produces it said Monday.

The Daily Mail of London stirred up the already tempestuous affairs at Downton with a report published Saturday that said Ms. Smith planned to leave after the coming third season of the show, which is produced by Carnival Films and “Masterpiece,” the long-running PBS franchise. The Mail quoted an anonymous source who said that Ms. Smith, who plays a beloved, tart-tongued aristocrat on “Downton Abbey,” had asked the series creator, Julian Fellowes, “to write her character out” so she could pursue other film and stage roles.

A press representative for Carnival Films said on Monday that the Daily Mail report was “complete nonsense,” adding, “We never comment on future story lines but it’s not true that she’s leaving.” Others were less definitive in their rebuttals: A press representative for Masterpiece, said that it did not discuss future stories on “Downton Abbey” and Ms. Smith’s representatives at Independent Talent Group in London declined to comment.